Policy —

UK consumer group goes after copyright bullies

Davenport Lyons has made a name for itself by accusing Internet users in the …

UK consumer advocacy group Which? has filed a complaint against the law firm responsible for sending out letters to Internet users threatening them with legal action if they don't pay up for various copyright violations. The organization says it has investigated a number of letters sent by Davenport Lyons and believes that it has sent repeated accusations to innocent users, coercing them into paying for something they didn't do. As a result, Which? wants the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to look into the matter for "excessive bullying."

Davenport Lyons has been in the news several times this year for sending prelitigation letters on behalf of content owners chasing after suspected infringers. This summer, the firm sent letters to people operating open WiFi networks, saying that they'll be responsible for the illegal actions of others. Davenport Lyons has also been sending letters on behalf of game publishers, accusing users of illegally downloading games from the Internet. Most recently, the law firm made headlines after it began sending out letters to Internet users in the UK—including a 60-year-old married couple—accusing them of illegally downloading hardcore gay porn.

In all cases, the letters demand users pay up for their alleged crimes or face even more serious charges in court. The "settlement" amount is usually around £500, and there is very little evidence linking the user in question to the allegedly stolen content, but that hasn't stopped Davenport Lyons from moving forward with its bullying tactics on behalf of copyright owners in Europe.

Which? says that, during its investigations, it found that Davenport Lyons had wrongly accused a number of users on behalf of game companies like Atari (which has since severed its ties with the law firm). Despite their innocence, Which? says that some users have been scared into shelling out cash after receiving multiple letters just to get them to stop. One Internet user told Which? that he cancelled his home broadband connection for fear that he will get yet another letter.

"We think the SRA needs to take urgent action against Davenport Lyons," Which? head of legal affairs Deborah Prince said in a statement. "In the current financial climate, we expect an increase in the action that companies may want to take against individuals. The SRA must investigate all such allegations and take decisive action where necessary."

Davenport Lyons' prelitigation settlement tactic is extremely similar to one that the RIAA continues to employ here in the US, as it attempts to ferret out Internet users that it suspects are guilty of copyright infringement. Some of the universities that receive the letters, however, are fighting back against the RIAA's bullying tactics by refusing to forward the letters on to the suspected infringers. They understand the difficulty of attempting to nail down a single user based on a largely-disposable and reusable IP address. Just last week, a federal judge quashed a subpoena that personal information about several Boston University students, ruling that the university had "adequately demonstrated that it is not able to identify the alleged infringers with a reasonable degree of technical certainty."

Davenport Lyons, like the RIAA, is apparently ignoring methodological flaws in the hope that some will feel intimidated enough to just pay up. But now with the potential involvement of the SRA, it's possible that the law firm will get a firm talking-to about its tactics. Which? requests that those who have been wrongly accused of copyright infringement in the UK contact the organization by e-mail at whichcomputingnews@which.co.uk.

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Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui